Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » Ringing and knitting
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44263 is a reply to message #44262 ] |
Sat, 13 August 2011 20:25   |
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No. They’ll probably try to make me learn to crochet.
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They make some fabulous wooden crochet hooks. . . .
Smooshes!
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44283 is a reply to message #44280 ] |
Sun, 14 August 2011 20:12 |
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It's an interesting idea, fiction or not! I like what it says about her character: she's THAT tough. And pretty. *g*
Smooshes!
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44286 is a reply to message #44277 ] |
Sun, 14 August 2011 21:05 |
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 3rdragon
Messages: 34
Registered: October 2010
Location: USA |
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Or, if you're cheap like me, you can just use a rubber band wrapped around the ends of your needles. Thick ones (but not too thick) are best. Maybe about 2 mm.
I've had people complain about my knitting. I ALWAYS (okay, almost always, the exceptions being when I can't help it) knit with bamboo, because if I'm knitting loudly, the noise bothers me. But I've had people in class tell me that it was distracting (which I can understand; knitting can really draw the eye, especially if the lecture isn't that interesting. I have the same problem with televisions on in a room, so I try to respect that, or at least sit somewhere that's not directly in their line of sight. I also had a professor tell me that it didn't bother her, but that she had weird passive-aggressive issues in one class, where it bothered people but they didn't say anything until the end of the semester, by which time it was a huge issue . . . which kind of made me want to go, "So does anyone here mind if I knit? No? Good." Especially after another gal, three weeks later, started working on her knitting in class. But having specifically been asked not to, I couldn't really see my way to joining her.
And I've been present for people going on long rants about how much knitting in class bothers them, but how they never tell the knitters, and the knitters should just stop to suit them even though they don't know . . . and depending on the situation I might choose not to stop even if someone did ask me, but I'm definitely not going to stop on the off-chance that I might be bothering someone who hasn't told me.
What's worst, though, is the people* who are sure that if you're knitting you're not paying attention to the meeting, and will tell you to stop, not because it bothers them but because they're sure you can't be listening properly if your hands are busy. I once read an article about a scientific study that many people pay better attention if they're doing some sort of handwork.** And, of course, I've never been able to find it again to educate these people.
What I have never said to a meeting-runner who disliked my knitting (and perhaps I should) is that my hands will be busy whether or not I am knitting. It's just a question of whether I'm making fabric or making my fingers bleed.
*who for some reason usually seem to be in positions of power
**I know that it's especially true for me if I'm likely to be bored. If I'm knitting I'm always paying at least some attention, but if I don't have anything to do I'm likely to get distracted and then realize that I've been completely unfocused for the last ten minutes. Although it's also true that I can't do my best paying-attention while knitting, so I may set the knitting down briefly if someone is explaining a particularly difficult concept, or if the person speaking is not a native speaker and sometimes difficult to understand. But it's not as if I'm expending that level of attention most o
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44289 is a reply to message #44286 ] |
Sun, 14 August 2011 22:52 |
Joseph-ine
Messages: 53
Registered: April 2011 |
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3rdragon, as a lecturer, I would say there is a third possibility that you may not have thought of from your lecturers, is that they are concerned you may not have enough suitable notes etc produced from the class, and would be more concerned that you might or might not be getting the most out of the class as possible. yes - some of us are concerned that you would be getting the most out of your class!
Do you take notes? I teach science, which is inevitably a class that requires notes, so I don't know what your classes would be on, but I would have to say that i too would probably be disconcerted if I saw someone knitting in my class, only because I have never seen it before. However, that being said I would probably chat to you or whoever was knitting afterwards about it to make sure you understood the class.
As to other students finding it distracting, they don't say anything because they don't feel they have a right to (well they don't really), and the whole build up at the end of the semester is because they haven't thought to tell anyone except each other or the lecturer. Silly really, but I guess that's just how some people operate, and is just a pet peeve of the person rather than how everyone feels.
I have to say I like crocheting in front of the tv, but I don't usually expect to remember much of the tv afterwards, because I find i do have to concentrate on my crochet.
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44299 is a reply to message #44263 ] |
Mon, 15 August 2011 12:59 |
Birdreader
Messages: 48
Registered: August 2011
Location: Chicago |
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If you can knit (with 2 needles), crocheting should be a snap. After all it is just variations on the slip knot. Also you still get to use all of the fantastic yarn.
Birdreader
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44303 is a reply to message #44286 ] |
Mon, 15 August 2011 14:58 |
lecuyerv
Messages: 61
Registered: January 2011 |
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| 3rdragon wrote on Sun, 14 August 2011 21:05 |
I've had people complain about my knitting. [snip]
What I have never said to a meeting-runner who disliked my knitting (and perhaps I should) is that my hands will be busy whether or not I am knitting. It's just a question of whether I'm making fabric or making my fingers bleed.
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You should mention that, with the addenda that keeping a first aid kit on hand would be a good idea.
I'm both blessed and cursed by the fact that I have multiple crafts. My meeting survival strategy involves a pad of graph paper. I spend meetings drafting patterns for textured knitting / counted cross stitch / filet crochet / seed bead weaving and just about any other type of craft that involves the use of regular rows and columns. If I'm sans graph paper, I doodle. A lot.
I did take a bit of knitting to a play once. I had a bad case of the figits and knew my friend and fellow attendee would be amused by my pro-active measures. I wound up knitting through part of the performance (in the dark) because the method of knitting I use (combined) can be done by feel alone with sufficient practice. (With the exception of color work and lace.) I knit a lot while watching TV. In fact, it's gotten to the point, I can't knit or crochet without some other thing going on. My last crochet project - a twin bed-sized afghan - involved me going to the local coffee shops to hang out and people watch in order to get it finished. (this was before I discovered InternetTV)
-Victoria
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44304 is a reply to message #44303 ] |
Mon, 15 August 2011 15:19 |
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I, too, like to knit while I'm doing other things. I hate just watching TV. I must KNIT and watch TV. Or SPIN and watch TV. I like keeping my hands busy, and it actually helps me focus on whatever else is going on.
Smooshes!
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44308 is a reply to message #44286 ] |
Mon, 15 August 2011 19:31 |
Aaron
Messages: 319
Registered: June 2009
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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| 3rdragon wrote on Sun, 14 August 2011 18:05 |
It's just a question of whether I'm making fabric or making my fingers bleed.
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I would be very careful about this sort of assertion. I take it that you just mean that your fidgeting is likely to leave you with mangled cuticles or something but I think that you risk being taken to mean something closer to "If you try to make me attend your meeting without my knitting I will gnaw off my leg to escape", which seems undesirable. Unless, of course, this is what you mean.
[Updated on: Mon, 15 August 2011 19:31]
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44318 is a reply to message #44308 ] |
Tue, 16 August 2011 09:19 |
lecuyerv
Messages: 61
Registered: January 2011 |
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| Aaron wrote on Mon, 15 August 2011 19:31 |
| 3rdragon wrote on Sun, 14 August 2011 18:05 |
It's just a question of whether I'm making fabric or making my fingers bleed.
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I would be very careful about this sort of assertion. I take it that you just mean that your fidgeting is likely to leave you with mangled cuticles or something but I think that you risk being taken to mean something closer to "If you try to make me attend your meeting without my knitting I will gnaw off my leg to escape", which seems undesirable. Unless, of course, this is what you mean.
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I've been to meetings where the latter holds true, and I was without project or pen and paper. Although my inclination didn't involve gnawing on my limbs in desperation. Quite the opposite, in fact. (there is no excuse for a five hour meeting when everything can be said in under two hours.)
-Victoria
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44320 is a reply to message #44290 ] |
Tue, 16 August 2011 09:43 |
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Black Bear
Messages: 3239
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA |
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| Maren wrote on Sun, 14 August 2011 23:44 |
Some classmates used to knit all the time in my library school classes*, and it wasn't a problem. In my experience, adult students are judged to be mature enough to determine whether they are sufficiently able to concentrate on the class while also knitting, doodling, or staring out the window.
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Yep! When I teach, I figure it's my students' choice to take notes or not. Some do, some don't, some draw--all I ask is that they don't talk or surf the internet during my lectures. And if they fall asleep, I reserve the right to make merciless fun of them in front of their peers.  But they're big kids, and if they don't take notes and subsequently do badly in the class, well... They get to take the consequences of their choices. If I taught middle/high school I might feel differently, I expect.
That said--I admit that one of my own focus problems has to do with my tendency for my eye to be distracted by movement; one reason I draw in meetings or classes is to keep my eyes/brain from wandering around the room every time someone fidgets... Drawing keeps my eyes on my notebook and lets my brain concentrate on what I'm hearing rather than seeing. I do sometimes have a hard time holding a conversation with someone who's knitting, and it's not their fault at all--I just can't keep my eyes away from the movement of their hands, and the next thing I know I've lost the thread of the conversation. But again, that's my own focus problem, not the knitter's.
"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44325 is a reply to message #44262 ] |
Tue, 16 August 2011 16:03 |
claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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I don’t know about everybody else but I get a thrill every time I pull off for a wedding: making that glorious noise as the new husband and wife come back down the aisle they went up three or seventy-six hours ago as two random+ single people.
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I don't think I've ever been to a wedding with bellringers, but I can just about guarantee it would make me cry. I get teary just thinking about all that magnificence.
O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44326 is a reply to message #44289 ] |
Tue, 16 August 2011 16:07 |
claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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| Joseph-ine wrote on Sun, 14 August 2011 22:52 |
3rdragon, as a lecturer, I would say there is a third possibility that you may not have thought of from your lecturers, is that they are concerned you may not have enough suitable notes etc produced from the class, and would be more concerned that you might or might not be getting the most out of the class as possible. yes - some of us are concerned that you would be getting the most out of your class!
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One of my graduate school professors told me years later that she had worried about exactly this issue when she saw me knitting in class.
Until I got an A on the first midterm.
O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44327 is a reply to message #44299 ] |
Tue, 16 August 2011 16:09 |
claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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| Birdreader wrote on Mon, 15 August 2011 12:59 |
If you can knit (with 2 needles), crocheting should be a snap. After all it is just variations on the slip knot. Also you still get to use all of the fantastic yarn.
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Admitted, but I personally find that when I crochet, I have to look at it all the time, which isn't true of my knitting. Also for some reason my eyes get tired when I crochet -- someone told me once that it was probably because I was concentrating hard and not blinking my eyes often enough.
I suspect some of this is true; if I'd crocheted as long and as constantly as I knit, I'd probably have less trouble.
O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44328 is a reply to message #44262 ] |
Tue, 16 August 2011 16:37 |
claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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I've occasionally encountered the "you must not be paying attention" comment, which I can usually counter.
I haven't, however, found a good way to deal with a few more objections that sometimes surface:
(1) "It's discourteous." I only get this one from fellow audience members, never from the lecturer. If I ask why, I sometimes get answers along the line of "It's rude not to make eye contact with the lecturer" -- which doesn't entirely work, because I *do* make eye contact, just not constantly -- but I suspect that the real issue is that someone sometime has taught them that anything other than sitting quietly is simply Bad Manners and Not Done (including doodling or fidgeting), and they are annoyed that I'm not playing by this rule.
(2) "It's distracting." I can understand this one even though someone knitting inconspicuously in a corner does not distract *me.* I would consider it good manners for knitters to not, for instance, throw seventeen balls of different colored yarns all over the table or knit with giant broomsticks. Otherwise I don't see why knitting should be any more distracting to other audience members than doodling or fidgeting.
(3) "It's unprofessional." Apparently to these people's minds, it is perfectly OK to doodle or fidget during a lecture, but not knit. (I've even heard one or two people say exactly this.)
I think there may be a hidden agenda with this last one, and if so, it's one I don't like: although there are men who knit, by far most of the people who knit in public are women, so knitting can mark you as female. If you think "professional" requires acting like a man or like a genderless being (which I certainly don't think) then I could see why someone might think knitting is less "professional" than doodling. But since this is all unspoken and probably unconscious on the objector's part, I'm not sure addressing this explicitly would be fruitful even if it *is* what someone is thinking.
O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44378 is a reply to message #44375 ] |
Fri, 19 August 2011 10:46 |
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equus_peduus
Messages: 437
Registered: September 2009
Location: France |
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| Joseph-ine wrote on Thu, 18 August 2011 22:54 |
My only question would be from that point would be: why didn't you get an HD? (Where I teach an A is not the best grade you can get in a class - is that true for you?).
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In the US, letter grades range from A through F; A being the top (typically 90% or better out of a possible 100%), B being 2nd (80% or better) and so on, with F being a failing grade. In most grading systems, a C is passing.
There are different ways of assigning letter grades - some teachers use a true bell curve, where a certain percentage of the class get As, a certain percentage get Bs, and so on; thus, an A grade might be 98%, or an A grade might be 70%, depending on how everyone else did in class. This is not used much any more where I've been to school because it's a relative scale - even if you did fairly well, if enough other people did better than you, you might still fail the exam/course/whatever.
In university, most of my professors used a modified curve, where the top score was considered "100%" - e.g., if there were 100 questions on an exam, but the top score was 93, then that is considered "100%" and in order to get an A (90%), you have to get an 84 or above.
Some just figure their work is easier or harder than 'average,' so they assign a score of A to be above 93% or above 86% or whatever. Basically assigning letter grades and how to do it is up to the teacher at the schools I attended for high school, university and grad school, though I imagine there are schools that standardize it across the board.
And just to complicate the explanation, there are gradations within - you can get an A+, an A or an A-, but these are typically not "official" grades, just a way to tell how good an A or B or whatever you got 
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44379 is a reply to message #44378 ] |
Fri, 19 August 2011 12:12 |
lecuyerv
Messages: 61
Registered: January 2011 |
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| equus_peduus wrote on Fri, 19 August 2011 10:46 |
| Joseph-ine wrote on Thu, 18 August 2011 22:54 |
My only question would be from that point would be: why didn't you get an HD? (Where I teach an A is not the best grade you can get in a class - is that true for you?).
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In the US, letter grades range from A through F; A being the top (typically 90% or better out of a possible 100%), B being 2nd (80% or better) and so on, with F being a failing grade. In most grading systems, a C is passing. {snipped}
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Also a graduate of the US education system. I'll add that I haven't seen the E letter grade since grade (primary) school. E = excellent, G = Good, N = Needs Improvement. High (secondary) school and my university used A, B, C, D, F, where C was passing.
-Victoria
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44389 is a reply to message #44379 ] |
Sat, 20 August 2011 14:29 |
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equus_peduus
Messages: 437
Registered: September 2009
Location: France |
Senior Member |
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| lecuyerv wrote on Fri, 19 August 2011 09:12 |
Also a graduate of the US education system. I'll add that I haven't seen the E letter grade since grade (primary) school. E = excellent, G = Good, N = Needs Improvement. High (secondary) school and my university used A, B, C, D, F, where C was passing.
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Hahaha yes. I'd totally forgotten about the fact that E is not used in the standard letter grades... it was so obvious to me that I skipped it -.-; Oops. And yes, we did have the E/G/N grades up to about 5th or 6th grade (about 11-12 years old)
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44391 is a reply to message #44378 ] |
Sat, 20 August 2011 22:42 |
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Black Bear
Messages: 3239
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA |
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| equus_peduus wrote on Fri, 19 August 2011 10:46 |
And just to complicate the explanation, there are gradations within - you can get an A+, an A or an A-, but these are typically not "official" grades, just a way to tell how good an A or B or whatever you got
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Very official at the university where I occasionally teach! My students take very seriously the difference between an A (100-94) and an A- (93-90), as I learned the first time I was a bit cavalier with my averaging. It's all factored into your GPA, which is what financial aid looks at; ie, if you're required to maintain a certain GPA to receive aid, then it matters a lot whether you get a B (3.0) or a B+ (3.3). Maybe other schools do it differently. But it definitely played into GPA calculation at my own high school and college...
"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44393 is a reply to message #44391 ] |
Sat, 20 August 2011 23:27 |
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equus_peduus
Messages: 437
Registered: September 2009
Location: France |
Senior Member |
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| Black Bear wrote on Sat, 20 August 2011 19:42 |
| equus_peduus wrote on Fri, 19 August 2011 10:46 |
And just to complicate the explanation, there are gradations within - you can get an A+, an A or an A-, but these are typically not "official" grades, just a way to tell how good an A or B or whatever you got
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Very official at the university where I occasionally teach! My students take very seriously the difference between an A (100-94) and an A- (93-90), as I learned the first time I was a bit cavalier with my averaging. It's all factored into your GPA, which is what financial aid looks at; ie, if you're required to maintain a certain GPA to receive aid, then it matters a lot whether you get a B (3.0) or a B+ (3.3). Maybe other schools do it differently. But it definitely played into GPA calculation at my own high school and college...
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Interesting. All the universities I applied to from high school did not take + and - into account; the university I attended did not, and neither did those of friends that I talked to about grading and such at other universities. GPAs can be calculated without +s and -s. Some schools don't even officially use the A-F system of grades, though they can convert into it if necessary for things like application to graduate school... I guess this just goes to show that there are a lot of variations on the theme.
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44418 is a reply to message #44262 ] |
Mon, 22 August 2011 01:44 |
Joseph-ine
Messages: 53
Registered: April 2011 |
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Well that answers my query - I wouldn't be worried about anyone in my class if they got an A on their tests with knitting in their classes!
In highschool we had the A - F grading system, with the +/- system, but when we graduate, the letters become: A- High Distinction, B - Distinction, C - Pass, and I think there may have been a low pass, and anything lower didn't give you much. The +/- would be taken into account in grading throughout the school years, but once you graduated it disappeared into the nether regions of school escapism.
At my University here we have a slightly different system with alternate values.
HD - High Distinction = 7.0
A - Distinction = 6.0
B - Credit = 5.0
C - Pass = 4.0
then a whole variety of different pass levels (depending on exemptions, cut-offs, supplementary exams etc - can get very confusing and I am still learning about those). Cut-offs are fairly standard (85% or more is an HD) but can vary from faculty to faculty. So our grades were letters but our overall score level used the numbers.
As you can see a GPA of 7.0 meant you were pretty damn smart - sadly while I didn get a number of 7.0's in my favourite classes, I never achieved an overall 7.0. Thankfully I didn't need it!
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| Re: Ringing and knitting [message #44424 is a reply to message #44328 ] |
Mon, 22 August 2011 12:43 |
Annagail
Messages: 68
Registered: August 2009
Location: PA |
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My grad school classes were way too writing-intensive for knitting- if you didn't take notes you would fail, no second way about it. However, there was a lot of "enforced waiting"- both the performance-type classes (like a weekly masterclass) and the recitals meant a lot of sitting and listening. I got a LOT of knitting done- and folks kept watching to see when the various pairs of socks would be done. My voice teacher called me "Madame Defarge" and only asked that if I were going to knit that I not sit immediately in the front row- but second row was fine, just so that the singer couldn't see my hands. I usually sat in the balcony just to be careful- also because inevitably there was a pattern I needed to be able to double-check.
However, when I was in undergrad we had mandatory chapel 3x a week- and knitting during chapel would get you 1/3 an absence (you were allowed 6 cuts per semester), just like falling asleep in chapel or doing homework. That always rankled with me...I was paying attention, just keeping my hands busy. They felt it was rude. I felt they were rude. They had the power. I didn't knit.
~Annagail
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